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Palgrave Macmillan

The Palgrave Handbook of Volunteering, Civic Participation, and Nonprofit Associations

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  • © 2016

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Table of contents (57 chapters)

  1. Special Types of Volunteering

  2. Major Activity Areas of Volunteering and Associations

  3. Influences on Volunteering and Association Participation

  4. Internal Structures of Associations

Keywords

About this book

Written by over 200 leading experts from over seventy countries, this handbook provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of the latest theory and research on volunteering, civic participation and nonprofit membership associations. The first handbook on the subject to be truly multinational and interdisciplinary in its authorship, it represents a major milestone for the discipline. Each chapter follows a rigorous theoretical structure examining definitions, historical background, key analytical issues, usable knowledge, and future trends and required research. The nine parts of the handbook cover the historical and conceptual background of the discipline; special types of volunteering; the major activity areas of volunteering and associations; influences on volunteering and association participation; the internal structures of associations; the internal processes of associations; the external environments of associations; the scope and impacts of volunteering and associations; and conclusions and future prospects.

This handbook provides an essential reference work for third-sector research and practice, including a valuable glossary of terms defining over eighty key concepts. Sponsored by the International Council of Voluntarism, Civil Society, and Social Economy Researcher Associations (ICSERA; www.icsera.org), it will appeal to scholars, policymakers and practitioners, and helps to define the emergent academic discipline of voluntaristics.


Reviews

“The one word that summarizes this book is: Ambitious. Ambitious in the scope of issues covered ranging from physiological correlates of volunteering to volunteering in consumer and service cooperatives: Ambitious in its interdisciplinary and multinational scope. Individual articles provide succinct summaries and have comprehensive bibliographies. The book is an excellent summation of what is known in 2017 and an important guide for researchers, pracademics and practitioners. It is a critical reference for both the novice and the expert.” (Susan M. Chambre,Voluntas, Vol. 29 (1), 2018)



“What makes the analysis of this vast and varied data effective is that questions and responses dictate the frame of the chapter. This is helpful for both students and other researchers being introduced to the field for the first time. The chapters in this text are rich, but leave the reader with a desire to learn more.” (Beth Oppenheim, Voluntas, Vol. 22 (2), 2018) “The Palgrave Handbook of Volunteering, Civic Participation, and Nonprofit Associations produced under the leadership of David Horton Smith and his colleagues is a timely and highly useful publication. Like of no other academic publication before, the Handbook’s scope in scholarship and authorship is multinational, revealing the global progress of nonprofit sector and voluntary action research. The Handbook will no doubt be a useful tool for everyone interested in gaining an educated insight into volunteering and related issues.” (Professor Lev Jakobson, Firstvice-Rector, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Boston College, Chestnut Hill, USA

    David Horton Smith

  • National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

    David Horton Smith

  • University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    David Horton Smith, Jurgen Grotz

  • City University London, London, UK

    David Horton Smith

  • Institute for Philanthropy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    David Horton Smith

  • University of Calgary, Canada

    Robert A. Stebbins

  • Institute for Volunteering Research, National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), UK

    Jurgen Grotz

About the authors

David Horton Smith is Research and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Boston College, USA, and an Honorary Visiting Professor at universities in the UK and Russia. The founder of ARNOVA and ICSERA, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award of ARNOVA in 1993. With a biography in the International Encyclopedia of Civil Society, Smith has written or edited many books and journal articles, including several encyclopedia entries.

Robert Stebbins is Professor Emeritus at the University of Calgary, Canada. His research and theoretic interests lie in work, leisure, and volunteering. His most recent books include Careers in Serious Leisure: From Dabbler to Devotee in Search of Fulfillment (Palgrave, 2014) and The Idea of Leisure ( 2012).

Jurgen Grotz is the Research Manager at the Institute for Volunteering Research, UK, and a Visiting Fellow at the School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK. He has over 25 years' research experience in the Voluntary and Community Sector, and has contributed to publications such as The State of the World's Volunteerism Report by UNV (2011).

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